FAST ELECTRICAL LYSIS OF CELLS AND RAPID COLLECTION OF THE CONTENTS THEREOF USING CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS

摘要

The invention provides apparatus and methods for subsecond lysis of selected cells (58) in a cell chamber (10) using a voltage pulse of 10 ms to 10 µs in duration followed by nearly simultaneous collection of the lysed cellular contents (59) into a capillary electrophoresis tube (42) or other suitable micro-collection device (15). Cell chambers (10) and capillary electrophoresis (42) tubes configured with electrodes (18, 19) for performing the electrical lysis are described. The influence of variables that govern the rate of cell lysis, such as the inter-electrode distance, pulse duration, and pulse strength are also described. The methods are illustrated using fluorophores that are loaded into a cell (10) and then collected following electrical lysis, separated by electrophoresis, and then detected by laser-induced fluorescence detection in a capillary electrophoresis system.